Sleep obsessed

It's a recurring theme with some of us Ay Mama! bloggers. "When is the baby going to sleep through the night?" "Should I let him or her cry it out?" In my case, I'm still having the same issues and I don't have a baby anymore. In fact, I can barely write this blog right now due to another night of interrupted sleep thanks to my 4 year old. Add to that, the fact that both Saturday and Sunday, Amelia woke up before sunrise, ready to start the day.

I've tried it all:

"the crying it out method": you have no idea how many times I've let my daughter cry it out at bed time or in the middle of the night. "She'll fall asleep eventually" experts would say. Yeah, after 48 minutes of crying, much to our despair and, I'm sure, many of our neighbors'.

"the baby whisperer": we would go into her room tell her to go to sleep and not pick her up. We did thsi after the girl got used to us rocking her in the middle of the night to get her to sleep.

"no co sleeping": she doesn't sleep in our bed which is great because she understands that she has to sleep in her own bed. The tough part is that when we have given in after a night of interrupeted sleep and brought her to our room, she won't fall asleep.

"the cow clock": that is not the official name, but it's a clock that has a sleeping and a dancing cow. You set it so that your child understands that he or she is to get up only when the cow is dancing. Amelia, will call me in the middle of the night to tell me the cow is NOT dancing.

"responsibility chart": a chart full of chores that doesn't include sleeping through the night. My brilliant husband took a picture of our daughter sleeping and made it one of her responsibilities. We've had the chart for months and she has yet complete that chore for a whole week.

I'm not looking for your advice. We have tried it all. I also don't want to hear that I'll miss this when she is 15 and hating me. I want this phase to be over. I won't miss it. Actually, I've heard teen agers love to sleep. I also know I'm rambling but, what do you expect from me? I was up four times last night. I can't wait until she's six and I can leave the cereal, milk and the remote control accesible so she can serve herself and LET ME SLEEP. Ay Mama!

She goes down at 8:30PM after a sleep routine that includes reading, praying and rocking. She wakes up between 6:15-6:30AM for the day. She does not nap. Dropped it when she was 2 and half. The wake up time is steady even when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Her thing lately is to wake up at 5AM, I'll tell her to go back to sleep or stay in her bed quietly until the cow dances at 6:30AM. I don't mess with her sleep routine because I know how important it is for her to go to bed at the same time every day. I've also tried putting her down earlier but 8:30 has been the more effective to have her sleep through the night until 6AM